, 1887-07-30
A BIGAMIST.
Thos. Van Studdiford, of St. Louis,
is Claimed by Four Women.
He Marries One of Them in Chey-
enne in the Spring of 1873.
Laramie County Records Intro
duced in a Divorce Suit.

Some rather sensational developments
have come to light in the st. Louis circuit
court in the divorce suit of Annie Van
Studdiford VS.. Thomas Van Studdiford,
in connection with dispositions which
have been filed in the proceedings. The
plaintiff alleges that she married her hus-
band at Cheyenne, June 4, 1876, and
lived with him until June %, 1888, when
she ascertained hat he had transferred
his affections to one Lizzie Ray, of Jones'
burg, Mo-, when she refused to have any
thing more to do with him. The de-
fendant, who is a son of the late DR..
Van Studdiford, a wealthy and prominent
citizen of st. Louis, in his answer, denies
that he ever married the plaintiff, or that
she ever lived with him as his wife, and
that she has no right to the name Van
Studdiford, her right name being Annie
Allen, and that a long time prior to the
pretended marriage she was an inmate
and keeper of various houses of i'll fame
in st. Louis, and that she was registered
as such under the social evil law when it
was in force; that at the time of the pre-
tended marriage he bad a wife living
from whom he had not been divorced.
The plaintiff does not deny these ale
cations, but insists that Van Studditord
was well aware of her social standing, and
that a child had been born to them be-
fore the marriage ceremony was celebrat-
ed. They had, she says, lived together
for years in the East, but finally
emigrated to Cheyenne, where the
defendant was taken sick and nursed by
the courtesan.
Finally, so deposes the witness, they
were married, the Rev. Francis Hillard
performing the ceremony. A paper
dated October %, 1888, and signed John
K. jeffrey, county clerk and ex-offcio
register of deeds, by VIM. w. Jeffrey,
deputy of the County of Laramie, u
porting to be a copy Of a marriage certi-
ficate between Thos. Van Studdiford and
Annie Allen, the marriage ceremony tax
ing place on the oath OF April. 1878, was
next introduced. The witness then al
leges that the marriage took place imme.
diately after Van Studdiford's recovery
from his sickness. Application was first
made to a Catholic priest to perform the
ceremony, but he refused. Mr.. Hillard,
an Episcopal minister, was then appealed
to, and he consented. Van Studdiford
gave her a wedding ring, but she pawned
it to get him a suit of clothes, as she
became broke. She finally drifted into a
house of i'll fame in this city, with his
consent, She made some money and
gave 1t to him to put in a bank, and he
spent it in dissipation. The parties fin
ally came back to St. Louis, where. so
states the witness, they lived together as
man and wife. The witness gives a very
graphic account of a visit from Rosa Dean,
who called to see her about Van Studdf-
ford. She states that the Dean woman
represented herself AS his wife, and that
she had had two children by him. She
and Van Studdiford again left St. Louis
to evade the Dean m who began to
make things lively, and welt to Chey-
enne. They came back to st. Louis,
when she ascertained his marriage to a
Miss Ball. He called to see her after
wards, and she ordered him out of the
house and left the room. He sat down
and ate his breakfast at her table. This
was in April last. He said he had
married Miss Ball to please his father,
who had promised to set him up in bust
ness, bYt insisted that he wasn't married
to anybody but her-the witness. The
witness then narrated a scheme she and
Van ~Studdiford got up to go to Califor-
mia, but which fell through. She was
then advised to have him arrested for
bigamy, but refused to do so.
The woma and man or both well re-
membered here. The gentleman affected
an air of shabby g~entility and claimed to
have rich relatives East. While the
female was handsome and dressed well,
she was addicted to the use of liquor, and
when drunk was troublesome. On one
occasion she attempted suicide at the
conclusion of a spree.